The present invention relates generally to sports training apparatuses, more particularly to ball throwing or pitching machines, and more specifically to soccer ball throwing machines for use in training and practice situations.
Sports played with thrown, batted or kicked balls have become widely popular, for both amateur and professional players. In every sport, it is necessary to practice regularly to attain any proficiency. It is also necessary to become more efficient in practice so that the time available for each player to participate is maximized. To improve practice efficiency, numerous machines have been created to simulate the repetitive action of propelling the ball to the player so that appropriate actions such as batting, catching or hitting the ball can be performed.
An early ball throwing machine, U.S. Pat. No. 2,716,973 to Desi, was directed to baseball batting practice. This machine simulated the actions of a pitcher, delivering balls to a batter at regular intervals. Desi does not, however, suggest or teach ways that the machine could be adapted to larger balls, changing player positions, or widely variable pitch angles. U.S. Pat. No 3,724,437 to Halstead, also directed to baseball practice, improves the range of pitches simulated for batting practice. Halstead also, does not suggest ways to adapt his invention to the larger size and differing requirements of soccer. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,161 to Bruce, improved upon the baseball practice machines by improving the accuracy of the pitched ball delivery, but again does not suggest ways to adapt for other sports. These machines are suitable only for baseball practice since the relative positions of a pitcher and batter are generally fixed during practice, and the machines are not readily adaptable for widely varying ball delivery patterns for a player""s practice.
Volleyball practice machines, represented by U.S. Pat. No 4,323,048 to Saito et al., simulate the special ball delivery methods for this sport: serve, toss and spike for example. Saito teaches an adjustable machine, capable of delivering the variety of ball motions for this sport, but does not teach how the adjustments can be made so that a variety of deliveries can be randomly selected to challenge the player. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No 5,964,209 to Boehner is an aid for volleyball practice but not readily adaptable to other sports such as soccer.
A machine capable of determining a player""s position on a basketball court, and returning a ball to that position, is described in U.S. Pat. No 4,678,189 to Koss. This machine delivers the ball to much of the court area, varying the loft of the toss to reach further if necessary. This does not, however, suggest how a controlled variety of deliveries to a soccer player may be made. Tennis machines such as U.S. Pat. No 4,834,060 to Greene aid in the practice of that sport by providing regularly projected tennis balls to a player for practice. Here too, the range of delivery options is not suitable to field sports such as soccer.
What is needed is a machine capable of propelling balls such as for soccer in a variety of presentations suitable for goalies who may catch the ball with their hands or other players who must kick the ball or strike it with their head, not touching the ball with their hands. The machine should be easily transportable to the practice field and capable of quickly changing from one type of delivery to another, simulating playing situations for all team members.
The present invention is a training machine which projects a ball such as a soccer ball with a wide variety of presentations to the player. The machine propels soccer balls with a maximum degree of freedom in selecting ball trajectories by mounting the propelling wheels on a plate which is free to rotate through approximately 120 degrees. The machine functions as an automatic coaching partner for duplicating any type of game situation during training. This durable apparatus reproduces game-like shots at the goal as well as passes at unlimited angles, distances and velocities. The machine is user friendly, using simple controls for speed and trajectory for each consecutive serve. The machine is light weight in the preferred embodiment and may be easily assembled and disassembled for transportation and storage. The simplicity of operation makes the machine suitable for use by children as well as by professional players.
The simple electrical controls which regulate the speed of each projection wheel provide an infinite variety of spin control to the projected ball to effect difficult ball deliveries. A simple manual tilt control allows the machine to be varied in tilt angle to give a duality to the directional control not found in any other ball delivery machine. All of the controls are easily adjusted by the operator, providing a unique method for the delivery of practice balls to players at any position on the field.